Abstract:

The manuscript drafts of Seamus Heaney's ‘Fosterage’, written in the early 1970s and held at Woodruff Library, Emory University, reveal a complicated process of revision involving twelve separate drafts of the poem. During this process, Heaney includes and later excises multiple references to the contemporary ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, focusing finally on his friendship with Michael McLaverty (to whom the poem is dedicated) and on the theme of artistic style, which is the final poem's dominant concern. Particular references in the drafts link this poem to other early poems such as ‘The Tollund Man’ and ‘The Betrothal of Cavehill’.

Keywords: Manuscript drafts; Seamus Heaney; Fosterage; revision; Troubles; Northern Ireland; Michael McLaverty; artistic style; The Tollund Man; The Betrothal of Cavehill

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Kentucky